Enforcement

The small Florida city of Opa-locka is on the verge of bankruptcy, according to the head of a state-appointed oversight board.

Goldman Sachs & Co. has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle Financial Industry Regulatory Authority charges that it submitted inaccurate auction rate securities information to a reporting system and did not have a supervisory system in place to catch the problems.

A Pennsylvania school district said it expects to receive a proposed adverse determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service stating general obligation bonds it issued in 2005 and advance refunded in 2013 are taxable.

The town of Ramapo, N.Y. and one of four individuals charged with securities fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission for misleading muni bond investors are disputing the charges and urging a federal judge to dismiss the case.

Municipal market participants are criticizing as too low the $50,000 fine that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority imposed on Dougherty & Co. after finding the firm served as an underwriter for 54 issuers with which it had ongoing “blanket” financial advisory agreements.

Elaine Greenberg, the former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s municipal enforcement unit, has joined Greenberg Traurig’s Washington D.C. office as a shareholder, the firm announced Tuesday.

Dougherty & Co. was hit with the largest Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fine of its kind in recent years after the firm agreed to pay $50,000 for serving as an underwriter for 54 issuers with which it had ongoing "blanket" financial advisory agreements.

Oriental Financial Services, Hilltop Securities, Alluvion Securities and Sterne, Agee & Leach have agreed to pay a combined $133,358 for municipal securities violations uncovered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is battling with Miami and former budget director Michael Boudreaux over whether they can defend themselves against securities fraud charges by saying they relied on advice from auditors.

The federal judge presiding over a Securities and Exchange Commission case charging the city of Miami and its former budget director with securities fraud concluded in a July 5 order that the bulk of the case could not be decided before trial

The small south Florida city of Opa-locka, recently designated by the state to be in a financial emergency, is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the Miami Herald.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled with a former Chicago charter school operator over charges that he negligently approved and signed a misleading official statement for a $37.5 million bond offering to build three charter schools.

Richards, Merrill & Peterson has agreed to pay a $45,000 penalty for trading below the minimum denomination and North Star Investment Services will pay $15,000 for municipal trade reporting failures under settlements with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

A suburban Chicago school district that ran into financial trouble after mishandling bond proceeds faces a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry.

The Government Finance Officers Association has issued an alert urging members to be ready for conversations with their counsel and quick turnarounds of settlements under the Securities and Exchange Commission's program to voluntarily self-report continuing disclosure violations.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is "very focused" on examining whether there were any securities law violations involving Puerto Rico bonds as the commonwealth's fiscal situation deteriorated over the last few years, SEC chair Mary Jo White told the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday.

In a first of a kind case, two California-based municipal advisory firms and their executives agreed to pay a total of $200,000 to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that they used deceptive business practices in dealing with five school districts.

Lawyers with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe are concerned about a ruling by a federal appeals court last week that found a constitutional challenge to the Securities and Exchange Commission's use of administrative proceedings to impose penalties in enforcement cases could not move forward until the proceedings end.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and Miami have each asked a federal judge in Florida to rule in their favor before a trial can be held over the SEC’s fraud charges against the city and a former city official.

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs has recommended that the full Senate approve President Obama’s two nominees for the Securities and Exchange Commission.